Review of Samurai Champloo

Samurai Champloo has the slick appeal of something extraordinary, something risky and new and right off the bat with the intro, it made me its bitch. The first half of the 26 episodes are solid. I give them 10 yees/10. They made me very happy, I loved it all. But from episode 15 about, there's a decrease in quality that takes the Samurai Champloo out of the show and makes it feel a lot like Gintama. The stark decrease in the presence of the overarching plot from episode 15 to episode 24, for me, took away the overall appeal of the show. Story: 6/10 Fuu worksat a teahouse, but then some dumbass virgin looking men come in and wreck stuff up. Mugen comes into the teahouse, and this is when you'll first experience the urge to feed the poor boy something. Jin is somewhere in the city fighting the henchmen of an asshole upperclassman. By chance, they all end up in this teahouse, they kill the dumbass virgin men and the teahouse lights on fire. Now, Fuu sets on a journey to find the "Samurai who smells of sunflowers." After rescuing Mugen and Jin from public execution, Fuu forces the two to help her find Samurai-san. And so they walk across Japan and fight sometimes. That's the premise of the plot that we are shown in the first episode, and the show stays true to this without forgetting it for the most part.

My issue with the story lies in the episodes 15-24, which focus on more menial things that truly have no relevance. Episode 15 focusses on Mugen and Jin, who've found people illegally forging money beneath a whorehouse. There's also an entire episode that involves baseball and mocking American interference in Japan, and to me, this was the show's lowest point. I couldn't make it through the episode (episode 23, I implore you not to watch it). Episode 22: the three are stuck, labouring, in a mine where they're dealing with people over 500 years old, but they don't know that, and oh no they know now and woops they escaped wow how cool. It was ridiculous.

And the two episodes about Mugen's past coming back to him were dealt with so poorly. Samurai Champloo has been embracing sword-fighting during the Edo era and when, suddenly, bombs and guns make such a prominent appearance for these few episodes, it feels odd. The girl from Mugen's past was turned into such a weak character and it made me mad, you know? This girl's grown up with an abusive brother, on an island full of criminals, and she turns out to be an absolute pussy? They couldn't give her the slightest remnant of a backbone? She looks badass, she dresses badass, why can't she *be* badass?

Art: 9/10
I adored the art, and it's what kept me watching in the latter half of the show. I think that Mugen allowed the animators to really, really experiment, and Jin allowed them to master conventional sword-fighting. I'm ride or die for Rurouni Kenshin, but the thing about that show is that sword fights aren't animated in the lovely, gruesome detail that Samurai Champloo's fights are. The thick lines of the art, the noses, the INTRO SEQUENCE HOLY SHIT. My one issue is that some backgrounds are incessently 90's anime type bright, and they contrast so greatly with the show's sleek, simple tone.

Sound: 10/10
With short, sweet, hip-hop soundtracks and that DJ sound effect - I loved this show's sound to no extent. I haven't watched Cowboy Bebop, but again, I'll bring up Rurouni Kenshin's example, since it has my favorite soundtrack in any show to date. RK's soundtrack is grandiose and captures the depth behind every draw of the sword, every glance of the eye. In contrast, Samurai Champloo's soundtrack is charmingly minimalistic, you can feel its power on the occasions that it shows up. The sound and art go very well together, so well done.

Character 7/10: (MILD SPOILERS AHEAD)
1. Fuu: Her determination to find Sunflower Samurai starts off annoying, and ends a little less annoying. I don't know, I just feel so unsatisfied with her character. It felt like her entire character revolved around finding the samurai. At the start, she's so clearly the only driving force to keep the three together. And I think this is the show's truest shortfall: Jin and Mugen have no real motive whatsoever to be with Fuu apart from the half-assed coin toss they did at the beginning. Would you bet your life on a fucking coin toss? I don't think so. She's a 15-year-old girl, but she acts 11. She has a dagger on her that she draws ONCE throughout the entire show (and that one time, she didn't even make the effort to hit). Bruh I feel like the show has something against girls under 18 having actual strength and not relying on older men to protect them. Fuu was a wasted opportunity, wasn't developed in the slightest, and if she did grow from episodes 1 to 26, it would have made that ending feel so much more worth it.

2. Mugen: the most brilliantly done character. What we know of his past is that he used to live on an island full of criminals, used to be a pirate, used to be in jail, and this boy knows how to handle a sword. He's crude, a pervert, has no manners, and is despicable in every way possible. He's unlikeable, but he's so terribly down-to-earth, dedicated, driven, smart - even if he's the antithesis of what is means to be a functioning human being, he's a wonderful character to follow around and understand. We see glimpses of humanity from him, from his interest in Sara to the change in his face when he's told to protect Fuu explicitly, at the end of the show. He learns how to read in an episode. Near the beginning of the show, we see him training in the smartest and most bullshit ways to defeat a swordsman he's not sure he can best. None of the other characters work in any remote way to better themselves, in skill, throughout the course of the show except for this one.

3. Jin: silent and pretty damn practical, Jin's got looks and also glasses that have no function at all. He's Mugen's parallel: respectful, kept to himself, sensible, studious. We know nothing of this past, save the fact that he killed his master and that he lost his parents at a young age. Because of the mystery of his past, of his thoughts and interests, he seems to be a deeper character to us than he probably really is. Episode 11, we seem him fall in love with a prostitute. He uses Mugen and Fuu's hard-earned money to visit her several times, and finally, he sets her free. A few times throughout the show, he fights against previous students of his late master, and the first time, he says he's made peace with his past, but as he's continued to be haunted by it, he deals with it in the most mature way possible. You'd think this would make him boring, but with Fuu fucking things up and Mugen fucking things up (but better), Jin's the perfect balance to it all, and I'm so glad he's here.

Enjoyment: 10/10
I can't say I didn't binge the ever-living shit out of Samurai Champloo. I watched the entire thing in a day, 9AM to 2AM, y'all. Even though I said it was like Gintama, it didn't have the satisfying endings that Gintama had, and I think that's a good thing. It reminds us that Samurai Champloo has a plot, and Fuu reminds us of it sometimes too, and the show's trying a little bit of everything, which is respectable. I highly recommend this show. Don't watch with your mom or something.